Confidentiality

The practice complies with Data Protection and Access to Medical Records legislation. Identifiable information about you will be shared with others in the following circumstances:

To provide further medical treatment for you e.g. from district nurses and hospital services.

To help you get other services e.g. from the social work department. This requires your consent.

When we have a duty to others e.g. in child protection cases anonymised patient information will also be used at local and national level to help the Health Board and Government plan services e.g. for diabetic care.

If you do not wish anonymous information about you to be used in such a way, please let us know.

Reception and administration staff require access to your medical records in order to do their jobs. These members of staff are bound by the same rules of confidentiality as the medical staff.

Medical Research Data Collection

Freedom of Information

Telephone Call Recording

Telephone calls from patients to the practice may be recorded for legitimate reasons, triage calls from the practice to patients may also be recorded for medico-legal purposes, staff training, and audit.

Comments & Suggestions

We are happy to listen to ideas and suggestions that will help improve our service.

Writing to the Practice Manager or filling our online feedback form are possible ways of letting us have your comments.

Making a Complaint

The Portland Practice operates a Complaints Procedure which meets national criteria. A leaflet containing the details of our Practice's complaints procedure can be found at the bottom of this page.

We hope that most problems can be sorted out easily and quickly, often at the time they arise and with the person concerned. If your problem cannot be sorted out in this way and you wish to make a complaint, we would like you to us know as soon as possible. This will enable us to establish what happened more easily. If your problem cannot be sorted out this way and you wish to make a complaint please write to the Practice Manager, The Portland Practice, St Paul's Medical Centre, 121 Swindon Road, Cheltenham, Glos GL50 4DP.

Please note that patient confidentiality is paramount and we are unable to discuss a patient’s treatment and or condition with anyone other than the patient unless the necessary “Third Party Consent Form” has been completed.

This procedure does not deal with matters of legal liability or compensation.

What we shall do

Acknowledge your complaint within three working days.

Inform you of how the complaint will be handled.

Inform you of the likely time the investigation is anticipated to take.

Inform you of the timescale in which the response is likely to be sent.

When we look into your complaint, we shall aim to:

Find out what happened and what went wrong.

Make it possible for you to discuss the problem with those concerned, if you would like this.

Make sure you receive an apology, where this is appropriate.

Identify what we can do to make sure the problem doesn't happen again.

Complaining to NHS England

We hope that if you have a problem, you will use our Practice complaints procedure. We believe this will give us the best chance of putting right whatever has gone wrong and an opportunity to improve our Practice. However this does not affect your right to approach NHS England if you feel cannot raise your complaint with us or you are dissatisfied with the result of our investigation. You should contact the Complaints Manager, NHS England, PO Box 16738, Redditch, B97 9PT

Is responsible for reviewing formal complaints about the NHS in England that have not been resolved by the Practice or other NHS organisation. If you would like them to review your complaint you must contact them within 2 months of receiving a final formal written response from the practice or NHS England.

The Practice Aim

We strive to provide the highest quality primary health care and services to our patients and customers in the most efficient and effective way

We encourage shared responsibility in matters of health

We endeavour to recognise the value of our team members individually and collectively and to encourage their personal and professional development and will continue the integration and development of teamwork within our organisation

We aim to actively influence local health strategy and decision-making

We encourage a climate of co-operation and communication with other health care agencies.

The NHS belongs to the people.

It is there to improve our health and well-being, supporting us to keep mentally and physically well, to get better when we are ill and, when we cannot fully recover, to stay as well as we can to the end of our lives. It works at the limits of science – bringing the highest levels of human knowledge and skill to save lives and improve health. It touches our lives at times of basic human need, when care and compassion are what matter most.

For Further Information on the NHS Constitution please click the document below:

Care Quality Commission

The Portland Practice has been registered by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

CQC are the independent regulator of health and adult social care services in England. CQC make sure that the care provided by The Portland Practice meets government standards of quality and safety.

CQC inspect The Portland Practice to check whether or not standards are being met. The inspections take place regularly and at any time in response to concerns. Patients may be asked to discuss their feelings about the practice and its services during CQC inspections. In between inspections CQC continually monitor all the information they hold about The Portland Practice.